FHS students compete in national LifeSmarts competition

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On April 12-19, students from business teacher Bruce Burwitz’s classes traveled to Orlando, Florida for the nationwide LifeSmarts competition. Seniors Evelyn Eck, Ted Graves, Andrew Fox and junior Joel Diccion competed against teams across the nation in a quiz bowl style environment.

“There were a couple of team-like competitions where we each would be asked one question and everyone would have to give one answer for the same question,” Eck said. “That required us to know different topics, whether it be health and safety, finance, environmental awareness, technology and things like that.”

In order to qualify for the national competition, the team had to take a series of qualifying tests and compete against another FHS team.

“A couple months ago [Burwitz] had everyone in all of his classes take the qualifying test,” Eck said. “Out of the qualifiers we competed against one other team from Fenton High School, and we won, meaning that we got to go to nationals.”

PHOTO COURTESY: Evelyn EckMembers of the Lifesmarts team pose for a photo before they compete.

The team placed in the top 16 out of approximately 48 teams. Most states sent a team to the competition.

“I’m always really proud of the kids,” Burwitz said. “We worked our way up from 27th [place] into the top 16. We lost to Illinois, who ended up getting third place.”

FHS teams have won the state championship eight out of the last ten years, each of those eight times qualifying for the national competition.

“You have to be a state champion [to qualify for nationals]. We were allowed to enter two teams, and one qualified [for nationals],” Burwitz said.

Anyone interested in participating in future LifeSmarts competitions can contact Burwitz at bburwitz@fentonschools.org.